Natalie Portman Will Not Be Seduced By Herself On Camera

GROUNDED

Natalie Portman Will Not Be Seduced By Herself On Camera

HOW DOES ACTRESS NATALIE PORTMAN STAY SO GROUNDED? One way is to avoid watching herself on film.

“I watch a film once, then never see it again,” the expecting mother tells the Los Angeles Times. “I think it’s dangerous to watch yourself.

I think you can get too used to seeing yourself outside of your body. And it’s important to see the world through your own eyes, not looking at yourself.”

The 29-year-old star is considered a frontrunner in the Oscar race this year for her performance as a paranoid dancer in Black Swan. The role, for which she bagged a Golden Globe, required her to undertake ballet training eight hours a day and to lose 20 pounds. “It took a lot to plan and maintain focus constantly,” she says. “And I’m a pleasure seeker by nature, so it took a lot of self-punishment to work through pain and to not eat what I wanted to eat and not sleep as much as I normally do.”

Even though she began imaging an acting career as a child, she says she questioned the profession’s contribution to the world.

Is it as meaningful as being a doctor, being a teacher, or things that I think of as such noble professions?,'” pondered Portman rhetorically. “But I think I’ve really reconciled myself with that, and I think art is not only important but critical to the soul of a human and the soul of a community. Not to be self-important about what I do, but I’ve found a lot of meaning in it.”